More than 270 million registered cars, trucks and buses currently drive along on U.S. roads, or about one for every U.S. resident aged 15 or older. Transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country—and accounts for 15 percent of emissions globally. So transforming the way we get around is a crucial part of the effort to tackle the climate crisis.
More children biking to school rather than riding in fossil-fuel-powered school buses or cars could be a small step in reducing transportation-related emissions. Open Streets During the COVID pandemic, the dearth of safe places to congregate indoors led many cities across the world to start “open streets” programs. Also dubbed “slow streets,” “safe streets” and “shared streets,” the idea involves “pedestrianizing” streets by limiting vehicle traffic to allow more people to safely walk or cycle in cities. In 2022 these programs popped up or expanded in New York City, Boston, Bristol, England, Montreal and Shanghai, among other cities.
They found that by pedestrianizing key streets with wide sidewalks, New York City and Paris could connect more sidewalks without adding much to the lengths of drivers’ trips. Similar interventions in Boston and Montreal would more substantially affect trip times, however, suggesting more research is needed on how to make the idea work in different cities.
According to EV-Volumes, a database of such sales, 62 percent more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids were sold in the first half of 2022 than in the first half of 2021, even as overall car sales remained down because of the pandemic. In the U.S. electric vehicle purchases could account for 67 percent of the country’s car sales by 2032 if the Environmental Protection Agency passes its recently proposed rules on automotive pollution.